They were both diagnosed in August 2015 with vitiligo, a harmless auto-immune disease that causes a lack of pigment in certain areas of the skin.

“During his diagnosis, he was in the middle of his kindergarten year,” Carter’s mom, Stephanie Adcock, told InsideEdition.com. “He was really struggling with the transition on a personal level. The kids weren’t being mean or vindictive, but they were saying what they observed and that was starting to bother him.”

For a while, Carter told InsideEdition.com he didn’t want to go to school: “I thought people would laugh, and tease me.”

Everything changed when Carter and his mom flew more than 2,000 miles across the country to meet Rowdy. Adcock said she kept in touch with Rowdy’s owner, Niki Umbenhower, after noticing her dog online.

“He’s done a complete 180,” Adcock said. “We’ve come full circle. He’s proud of himself. He thinks we have boring skin because we don’t get to have vitiligo.”